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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think under your clothing is private?

46 replies

ZilphasHatpin · 30/04/2017 12:15

www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/police-called-after-upskirt-photos-12965666

For anyone not wishing to click, a student was found to have "upskirt" photos of staff at their school on a memory stick. Police were called. The PPS decided not to investigate because;

"The complainants who were photographed were not observed doing a private act and therefore the evidential test in respect of the offence of voyeurism is not met."

So basically you can take photos under anyone's clothing without their consent as long as they aren't peeing or showering and there is no grounds to prosecute you.

The student in question is still at the school.

OP posts:

FeedTheSharkAndItWillBite · 30/04/2017 14:58

dermot

That's disgusting

I'm also thinking of girls walking up stairs etc... And seeing as skirts are often part of a uniform? Awful.

DJBaggySmalls · 30/04/2017 14:58

YANBU, they've basically announced women are fair game as long as you dont touch them

Jux · 30/04/2017 15:24

Happened in dd's school. I was absolutely disgusted,he was photgraphing students too. He was also bullying girls into sending him naked/partly naked shots and then sharing them, and blackmailing them into sending him more.

They made the ghastly little perv Head Boy!!!!!

I recommended that school to a mumsnetter about 6 years ago when dd was in about Y8. I have no idea how such a great school turned into such a shitty dump. It's supposed to be a Centre of Excellence for student teachers. I have no idea how they managed that. It's a vile and horrible place.

I apologise unreservedly to that MNer, if she's reading, and hope her chidlren's experience there is very, very different to dd's.

FeedTheSharkAndItWillBite · 30/04/2017 15:28

Jux

where I went to school they held a goodbye party for a man that was caught sexually abusing his stepdaughters for years... (he ultimately wasn't sentenced for some crazy reason but wasn't allowed to work at the school, the same his stepdaughter went to, anymore...)

I only found out about this when I was already an adult. Still don't know what those people were thinking.

It wasn't in the UK, but it was in a Western European country. I'm STILL outraged. Gah!

TalkingintheDark · 30/04/2017 15:29

Jux! What the hell were they thinking??

Why IS misogyny so fucking acceptable?

AyeAmarok · 30/04/2017 15:33

I wonder if it happened to men wearing kilts if it would be taken any more seriously.

Original poster

ZilphasHatpin · 30/04/2017 15:37

jux!

OP posts:

TheMysteriousJackelope · 30/04/2017 15:54

There was a similar story here in the US a few years ago. I man got away with upskirt photos as the judge in the case said if the women had fallen on an escalator or similar they could have exposed their underwear so their knickers didn't count as a private area.

Of course we now have an Attorney General who had to think for a week or two as to whether groping a woman's genitals was actually sexual assault so it isn't entirely surprising.

HappyFlappy · 30/04/2017 15:55

I'm sure that something similar has happened before and that the offender was prosecuted. It was an adult though, not a child.

I'll have a google.

It is a disgusting thing to do.

TheMysteriousJackelope · 30/04/2017 15:56

Aye If it happened to men it would be taken even less seriously, it would probably be greeted by roars of laughter and if they complained they'd be called sissy or similar . I think men get even worse treatment than women when it comes to being victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

HappyFlappy · 30/04/2017 16:06

Had a google -you wouldn't believe the vile stuff that came up - I wasn't prepared to trawl through, I'm afraid,

However my personal opinion is that if an item of clothing is one that someone wouldn't be happy to voluntarily show in public, then it should be an offence to photograph it surreptitiously. Perhaps it needs a chief constable's wife or daughter to suffer this humiliation for it to be taken seriously.

I think a private prosecution might help to clear matters up -or civil case for invasion of privacy something.

Nasty, nasty child!

DermotOLogical · 30/04/2017 16:52

Yep the boy was suspended for a day and told to delete the pics.

The school were surprised when I refused to have him in my classroom. I stood my ground with union backing and never had him in my room again. I was also incredibly wary of being near him at all. Ridiculously I was intimidated by a freaking 14 year old. Truly nasty experience. Taking these shots should be illegal. It bloody well would be if I'd taken the equivalent photos of him.

BoneyBackJefferson · 30/04/2017 18:09

Just to add to DermotOLogical's post I have taught children where the teachers have been told that there are not to be alone in the room with them as they are dangerous (physically, sexually or make up complaints).

It really is about time that schools were given the power to deal with these children properly.

Freddystarshamster · 30/04/2017 18:16

Perhaps it needs a chief constable's wife or daughter to suffer this humiliation for it to be taken seriously

What the actual fuck? Do you want the police to act within the realms of the law or not? You are aware they don't make the law's?

Freddystarshamster · 30/04/2017 18:20

And it's not as if the police did fuck all. They gathered evidence and placed it before the relevant prosecuting authority. (As is the way for pretty much all sexual offences) THEY decided it didn't meet the threshold

HappyFlappy · 30/04/2017 18:41

All right - keep your fur on!

ForalltheSaints · 30/04/2017 19:57

The only time in my life I have ever applauded the scumbag Russell Brand was when he objected to someone trying to take an upstart photo of his then wife.

Even if not prosecution, exclusion should have taken place.

ForalltheSaints · 30/04/2017 19:58

Incidentally the likely French President wants under 15s not to be allowed mobile phones in school, which is to be applauded and would have stopped this happening.

Jux · 01/05/2017 08:33

Yes, it would stop it happening, but I am wary of interfering in those sort of freedoms - carrying a mobile. It displaces the responsibility for how the phone is used and would likely just transfer the problem to a slightly later age, rather than actually solve it.

The problem is with people's behaviour, rather than with the phones. Young people need to learn what is appropriate and what is not. The solution lies, imo, in the consequence, and in what children learn learn from the world around them.

We have built a society which seems to think that "if I want it I can have it". The Entitled Society. Is that a bleak view? I think I'm probably wildly off, hope so.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 01/05/2017 08:50

Increasingly kids are using tablets at school which also take photos so unless it is coupled with the will to not allow it, banning phones won't help much.

hippyhippyshake · 01/05/2017 08:50

Is this any different to taking photos under a toilet door or looking over the top?

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